Editorial: More funding needed for timely tests of rape kits

Published 6:38 pm, Thursday, October 8, 2015

CTNEWSJUNKIE FILE PHOTO
Laura Cordes, executive director of Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services, speaks at a July press conference touting a law to hasten the testing of rape kits.

CTNEWSJUNKIE FILE PHOTO
Laura Cordes, executive director of Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services, speaks at a July press conference touting a law to hasten the testing of rape kits.

Photo: Journal Register Co.

Editorial: More funding needed for timely tests of rape kits

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It may have happened last year, 10 years ago or decades may have gone by, but some victims of sexual assault may finally get their day in court.

Tests of rape kits are underway at the state forensic science lab as nearly 500 of 847 kits that have been backlogged are being examined for DNA and other evidence. So far, the lab has tested about 100 of the kits.

The state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection was recently awarded $1,401,966 as part of a $41 million federal grant released to 20 jurisdictions nationwide to help erase the backlog of untested kits. There are an estimated 400,000 untested rape kits nationwide.

The kits have been sitting in cardboard boxes gathering dust at local police departments, stored in abandoned police warehouses, or stowed away in forensic labs — sometimes for years, leaving survivors without crucial evidence needed to put away their attacker and allowing repeat offenders to go after others.

A rape kit is a collection of evidence gathered by hospital personnel when a victim reports they were sexually assaulted. His or her body is part of the crime scene and it can take up to six hours to collect and includes bags and sheets for evidence collection, swabs, comb, envelopes for hair and fibers and blood collection devices.

Testing is expensive, averaging $1,000 per kit, and in many cities and towns across the country, the kits have languished until resources became available or time and technology allowed for better DNA testing.

The kits are an essential tool for law enforcement. Rape kits potentially hold the key to take a violent offender off the streets as studies show there is a 50 percent solve rate of previously unsolved rapes when the kits are tested.

Connecticut has joined at least 10 other states that have enacted or are considering implementing reforms to end the backlog, using legislation, policies and state funding to do so.

There are plenty of reasons to cheer this latest effort to possibly bring closure, comfort and safety to some survivors and we applaud lawmakers for seeing the wisdom to provide funding to make it possible.

But we are also appalled that more than 400,000 victims nationwide who were violated had to wait years for justice to catch up. We also question why legislation and policies had to be implemented when the crime is already in the books.

Every two minutes someone is sexually assaulted in the United States. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Criminal Victimization Survey, in 2012, there were 346,830 reported rapes or sexual assaults of persons 12 years or older.

Sixty-eight percent of sexual assaults are not reported to the police and 98 percent of rapists will never spend a day in jail.

And reports of sexual assault are rising on college campuses. Forty-three people reported being raped at the University of Connecticut last school year — doubling the previous year.

So we’re not sure why the avenues to solving this type of crime have been left on the wayside but we believe it would be prudent to provide even more funding to ensure that rape kits are analyzed in a timely fashion.

We don’t think lack of funding can be used as the measure to define why potentially dangerous people are on the streets and why vulnerable citizens sometimes have to live in fear and isolation while their perpetrators walk the streets. We think not to increase funding is short-sighted and the consequences can be disastrous.